174 agriculture; of maine;. 



"THE NITROGEN PROBLEM AND THE DAIRY." 



By Professor Wiluam D. Hurd, Dean of the College of 



Agriculture, University of Maine. 



Nitrogen is the great stimulating element essential to plant 

 and animal life. It is as necessary to your life and mine, and to 

 the plants and animals about us as the water we drink or the 

 oxygen we breathe. It, with other things, forms protein — the 

 flesh forming feed and the material required for building up 

 the tissues of the body, and for maintaining these under the 

 wear caused by the vital functions. 



In the past hundred years its existence, the various forms in 

 which it is found and the part it plays in the organic life of the 

 world, have furnished a problem ever presenting something new 

 to scientists. The end of this study is not yet, although the past 

 twenty years have given perhaps more definite knowledge of 

 this subject than all the years that have gone before. With 

 potash, phosphoric acid and lime, it ranks among the elements of 

 foremost importance in Agriculture. Compared with the other 

 three it is the most elusive, appears in more varied forms, is 

 most easily lost and at the same time is the most abundant of 

 these four important elements of plant and animal life. Upon 

 the proper handling, conserving and maintaining of this ele- 

 ment, nitrogen, depends the future fertility of the soil and the 

 ability of the land to produce food and raiment, and to supply 

 all the needs — yes, even the luxuries of civilized nations. 



The last fifty years have witnessed the greatest progress in 

 the advancement of agricultural science. Liebig, Boussingault, 

 Lawes and Gilbert, and others, through their application of 

 well known laws of chemistry and physics to this science have 

 brought agriculture to a stage where it ranks first among the 

 arts, and is second to none of the professions. These men and 

 those now working in laboratories all over this and other coun- 

 tries have turned men's thoughts to the soil and its possibilities, 

 and have indeed opened up a "New Earth" to inquiring minds. 

 We have been taught new systems of husbandry; new methods, 

 and new ideas have been given us. Among these the part nitro- 

 gen plays is not the least. In this new agriculture we have 

 been turning our attention to the proper forms of human food 

 to use, the proper form of fertilizers to buy in an effort to 

 increase our crop production, and the balanced ration as applied 



